Semiiramiis

 Mornings were the worst.  It seemed as if every bodily insult lurked, waited and then attacked the moment she stirred from her bed.   It didn't matter that she understood exactly what was going on and that she believed this was probably temporary.   Part of it was beyond her control, she couldn't make herself younger, she'd seen her fortieth birthday come and go, but that did not explain all of this discomfort. Oh, who was she fooling?  Herself?   This wasn't discomfort, the early morning effects of age and cold, this was pain.   This was illness, but an illness that wasn't an illness.   No, she was purging illness.   She had to keep holdi

 Fergus could not believe his own eyes.  Why?  Why?  Even after his very sane, cautious reply that they were incapable of hosting her at the moment, the Queen stood in the remains of his main hall, her mantle wrapped tightly around her shoulders.   Her expression was set, unyielding, and his stomach dropped.  There must be something more to the very limited story that Leonie had finally given him... “Your majesty.”  He managed.  She shouldn't be here.   “I sent a message that...” She waved him to stop and he did, doing his best to not watch the entrances to the hall...to not watch for Leonie's approach.  If...no, w

 “You know how I feel about you.  I won't let you die, not if I can do something about it. Sanest thing I've ever done.”  Leonie jerked awake, her stomach in knots and her heart pounding.  It was the same way she had come awake every day since Denerim.  When would it stop?  When would she let it stop? “I don't want to hear it.”  She grumbled, and Feef merely stared back at her, head tilted, ears pricked.  There was nothing to say.  The mabari had been there for all of it, and she was the only one who truly understood.   Fergus thought he wanted to, but he already had so much on his plate to deal with as it was.  It w

 Teyrn Fergus Cousland was at a total and complete loss, his gaze locked on his sister, his only surviving family member.  He understood her grief, her rage, he'd lost as much or more than she had...but he did not understand her brittleness.  Leonie was a Cousland, and they were strong.  But perhaps that was it, Leonie was a Cousland through her father, just as Fergus was.  And Couslands were strong, stoic.  But Leonie had always been more like their mother than he was, and the Mac Eanraigs were a wild and fierce bloodline.   He just didn't understand how to handle her, Leonie had come home fickle and mercurial, swinging wildly between rages